The air suddenly fell silent.

A gentle breeze blew, causing ripples in the lake and the lotus flowers to sway.

"What?" Huang Yi was stunned for a moment, then finally came to his senses, dumbfounded.

Mr. Huang Sha smiled slightly, and said, "Unbelievable, right? The Seven Archdemons, Giant Dragons, Magic, Magical Beasts, Deities, these fantastic things actually exist!"

"Isn’t this all fictional?" Huang Yi asked in shock.

Mr. Huang Sha shook his head with a smile: "Actually, you have already encountered the truth. I found a conversation from your experience in the Virtual World. It was during the Winter Snow Festival the year you first entered the Virtual World. At that time, you were still level 90, walking with Xiao Chunzi in Dragon City, discussing matters related to the Yellow Emperor and the Winter Snow Festival. At that moment, a Poet suddenly appeared, and during your conversation, he mentioned an interesting story. It is said that a Plot Planner from Era of Corporation inadvertently obtained a bizarre red stone during a space journey. That night, he dreamed of a storyline, which later became part of The Second World’s plot."

Huang Yi recalled it, vaguely remembering that such a thing did happen, and couldn’t help but ask, "Could it be that this story is true?"

Mr. Huang Sha nodded: "The story is so fantastical that everyone assumed it was an online rumor. In fact, there is a prototype for this story; the red stone truly exists, and it was from that stone that we learned the cosmic truth."

Huang Yi held his breath, feeling that the worldview he had accepted since childhood was about to be shattered. He was about to learn the most significant discovery in human history.

"Decades ago, an astronaut from our Era of Corporation obtained a glowing red stone near Mars while on a spaceship. After bringing it back, we researched it thoroughly and discovered that the stone held a miraculous strength. You, having stayed in the Virtual World for so long, should know what the color red often represents."

Huang Yi froze, suddenly realizing, and exclaimed, "Divine Power?"

"Exactly! The miraculous strength contained within that red stone is Divine Power. Through various detection methods, we found that the stone held a vast amount of information, including things reminiscent of a fantasy world such as Giant Dragons, Magic, the Seven Archdemons, the Heaven Realm, and Death God. The stone seems very likely to have been created by intelligent life, containing an abundance of information. The details are remarkably rich and interconnected, seamless, without a single flaw, making it hard to believe it was fabricated. It must have actually happened to be so detailed."

Mr. Huang Sha paused, then continued: "At the time, we couldn’t believe the information either, as it did not align with our scientific discoveries. Our interstellar navigation technology was very backward then; human space travel was limited to places like the Moon or Mars. It was difficult to verify whether the information within that red stone was true or false. However, the information was still very useful. We used it as a blueprint to create the first-generation Virtual World, ’Hope.’ Initially, this matter could have ended there, regarded as an unsolved mystery, but something happened more than a decade ago."

"More than a decade ago, the Voyager 2 Satellite unexpectedly sent back a piece of information, indicating it had stopped. Voyager 2 is a satellite launched by the United States over a hundred years ago. Together with Voyager 1, they were the first two artificial objects to leave the Solar System. Voyager 2 traveled in space at over 50,000 kilometers per hour and should have continued onwards in the vacuum of space, so why did it suddenly stop?"

"Could it have collided with something like an asteroid?" Huang Yi asked.

Mr. Huang Sha shook his head: "At over 50,000 kilometers an hour, colliding with an asteroid would have pulverized it, and it couldn’t possibly have sent back information. We suspect Voyager 2 encountered some unique situation, perhaps an anomaly in its information module, or some speculate it was captured by intelligent life."

"At that time, we had just made a significant breakthrough in space exploration, immediately launching a new interstellar spaceship, which quickly traveled the distance Voyager 2 took over a hundred years to cover. However, when the spaceship reached where Voyager 2 was, it also stopped and couldn’t proceed further. It turned out there was a mysterious barrier there, blocking our satellites and spacecraft, hindering further exploration. Speaking of barriers, you should know how to refer to it in the language of the Virtual World." Mr. Huang Sha said, looking at Huang Yi.

"Is it... a Barrier?" Huang Yi said uncertainly. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Exactly! It’s a Barrier! Our scientists conducted research and discovered that the Barrier had something to do with quantum physics. To uncover the secret of the Barrier, we increased our investments in the quantum field and conducted more in-depth research on the red stone obtained decades ago. We concluded that the red stone likely comes from outside the Barrier. The information within it most plausibly exists outside the Barrier. It’s uncertain why the stone penetrated the Barrier, or perhaps the Barrier is one-way, allowing things from outside to enter while preventing things inside from leaving. This compels us to believe that other intelligent life exists in the universe, and they created the Barrier. It’s possible Earth’s life forms are a branch of them, seeded by them, or even kept like livestock by them."

Huang Yi bit his lip and said, "Are you saying that beyond that Barrier is the real universe? And what we previously believed to be the universe is merely an illusion created by the Barrier?"

"Yes. The Barrier is incredibly mystical; it can project false information to humanity, making people mistakenly believe they observed gravitational waves, starlight emitted billions of years ago, misleading people on every front. All past human observations are but false information released by the Barrier. Can you believe it? The universe we know is merely an illusion, and the real universe is as it appears in the Virtual World."

Mr. Huang Sha paused, then continued: "Afterwards, we continued using the information within the stone as a blueprint to create the second-generation Virtual World, ’Heroes,’ and the upcoming third-generation Virtual World, ’Origin.’ The intention is to select a group of ’heroes’ to venture into the real universe and explore the true ’origin’ of humanity."

————

The Poet and Huang Yi discuss matters related to the red stone in Chapter 398